Grigori Rasputin

Rasputin began life as a peasant in the poorest reaches of Siberia and ended his life as the virtual second-in-command of Tsarist Russia. How did he achieve such a rapid change in fortunes? Was it through palace intrigue or magic and mind control? Or perhaps, the causes were a combination of hypnosis and haemophilia? The tsar’s son Nicholas had been born with the dreaded “royal disease” otherwise known as the blood clotting deficiency named haemophilia. The slightest cut or scrape could be life-threatening for the young boy. The self-proclaimed healer managed to convince the royal family that he was the only way that their son would stay alive. With a role this vital, there was no way that Rasputin would be dropped from the imperial payroll anytime soon.

Inside you will read about…

â?? From Peasant Monk to Royal Holy Manâ?? Rasputin’s Miracleâ?? Immoral Rumorsâ?? Rasputin’s Banishmentâ?? Rasputin During World War Iâ?? The End of Rasputin’s ReignAnd much more!

Through intrigue, divine intervention, or perhaps just the sheer force of his personality, he forever cemented his place in Russian history. Read about the mad monk turned master ministerâ??read about the astonishing rise and fall that comprised the life of Grigori Rasputin.

Included are stories on ghosts – both real and fake – and the legend of King Arthur. Welsh animal lore, customs, monsters and music are also examined. One of the strangest villages in the world gets a chapter to itself, as do witches, miners and druids.

The book is written in a personal, light-hearted style, with geographical references to help identify the places. Although the stories are intended to entertain as much as educate, the historical facts are accurate.

Hopefully, you will come away with a different view on Wales – and a smile on your face.

Prepare to be frightened…very frightened by these extraordinarily scary places most of us probably never knew existed!

The world around us is a scary place. With danger lurking around so many corners, the threats we can explain are often easily quantified and dismissed. Rather, it is the unexplainable, the paranormal and the strange which present the biggest threats to our psychological well-being. All across the planet, certain places and buildings have come to represent these abnormal and unexplainable phenomena. From ghosts to genocides, brutal murders to witches’ covens, these locations are both hyper specific and universal.In almost every town, village or city, there is often an area where people are wary. A certain building people say is haunted, or a home they know has a particularly gruesome past. People might warn children to stay away, these buildings might form the backbone of some local folklore, or they might actually be condemned and restricted to the public. In these buildings our imaginations run riot and we wonder what could be possibly be lurking down the long, dank and dark corridors. But not all of these places are created equal.In this book, we will examine some of the most terrifying, strange, bizarre, odd and depressing places on earth. These might be haunted homes or the resting place of a murderous maniac. Some have been created by the evils of modern man while others are tributes to ancient and dark mysteries we still struggle to explain. The one thing they share is their ability to chill you to the bone. But as you work through this list, the true extent of humanity’s capacity to imagine the horrific should not be underestimated. When you are ready to learn about some of the worst places in the world, like the island of the doll in Mexico, the Paris catacombs, the Hell fire Club in Ireland, the Ridges in the USA and much moreâ?¦just read on!

Bang Chan traces the changing cultural characteristics of a small Siamese village during the century and a quarter from its founding as a wilderness settlement outside Bangkok to its absorption into the urban spread of the Thai capital. Rich in ethnographic detail, the book sums up the major findings of a pioneering interdisciplinary research project that began in 1948. Changes in Bang Chan’s social organization, technology, economy, governance, education, and religion are portrayed in the context of local and national developments.

Discover the hidden history of the Crusades and the many conspiracy theories that followed! What led to the crusades and why the effects of the Crusades still resonate on Christianity and Islam religions today.

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The Crusades are events which have marked the middle ages for Europe as well as for the Arabian world, yet at times we seem to not know nearly enough to what we should. Explore why this could be so while learning of what has transpired during the centuries of confrontation between the two most widespread religions of the world.

For centuries, the meaning of and the reason behind the Crusades has shifted, depending on who is telling the narrative. In the days of Voltaire, in which resentful Renaissance writers were often more than ready to impugn the Catholic Church, the Crusades were often depicted as acts of medieval stupidity in which drunken, belligerent, and debauched masses of Europeans were blinded by religious intolerance, and goaded to attack others. Then, by the 19th century, the Crusade narrative shifted again, and in the world of far-flung European colonies the Crusades were seen and understood through the lens of imperialism, and many explained the Crusades as nothing more than an early attempt at colonialism.

This mythical narrative of unwarranted European aggression continued to promulgate itself through the years until it was widely believed that the Islamic world was a completely innocent victim of the Crusades. Many came to believe that the Muslims did nothing at all to provoke the West and instead were the sole arbiters of high civilization and knowledge in a dark age who were unfairly targeted by militant Western barbarians. But by the early 21st century, perceptions began to change again as modern examples of Muslim extremists began to make front page news with increasing frequency.

When the brutally extreme conquering hordes of ISIS came on the scene, routinely making mass murder, rape, enslavement, and the destruction of entire civilizations a part of their regular repertoire, people began to look at the Crusades just a little bit differently. They began to consider the possibility that perhaps there was something more to the Crusades after all. Perhaps the Islamic world of yesteryear had some of the same extremism operating back then. Even former U.S. President Barak Obama, in a 2015 address that turned into a marathon message on everything from the Crusades to ISIS, seemed to invoke the idea that history was repeating itself, and that all this was “nothing new.”

Now people are wondering what the real reasons for the Crusades were. This book explores the major events and motivations of all parties involved during this pivotal moment in history, as well as some of the conspiratorial intrigues that came along the way. Any in-depth exploration of something as complex as the Crusades takes us on quite an arduous journey with many twists and turns. It is almost impossible to separate the history of the Crusades from the conspiracies it engenders. This book doesn’t expect you to take any one side or a stance, it just wants you to enjoy the ride.